


'cause i'm your home

by haoshua



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Christmas Fluff, Croffles, Fae & Fairies, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Mindless Fluff, Not Beta Read, Pre-Relationship, kind of, this is the 1st thing i've written in a v long time pls b gentle w me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:36:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27973807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haoshua/pseuds/haoshua
Summary: Ten smiles. He has no idea what a croffle is, but if Kun is this excited about it, then he’s sure it will be delicious.
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Qian Kun
Comments: 9
Kudos: 70





	'cause i'm your home

**Author's Note:**

> title from "home" by seventeen
> 
> written for day 1 for the 23 days of wonder december drabble challenge, with the prompt being "mistletoe"

Turns out, Mundies have a lot more in common with the fair folk than Ten initially thought.

They’re ritual-oriented creatures, much like faeries. They wake up at similar times and have their morning meals together. They go to the special building a little ways away from town at the end of the week and sing their praises to their god (singular, how odd). They also have gatherings during certain times of the year where they feast and exchange gifts, depending on which god (or gods) they worship. 

Ten finds a little bit of comfort in this similarity, so very different but familiar at the same time. 

This particular ritual, held on one day around mid-Winter though celebrated throughout most of the season, is called “Christmas”, Kun tells him. They’re walking down the street now, gloved hand in gloved hand, as Ten takes everything in.

There’s a mind boggling amount of red and green draped on top of everything, which Ten appreciates. It’s a pleasant change of scenery from the warm hues of Autumn. Sparkly lights line walls and shopfronts and trees, bathing the night in a lovely glow. The Mundies are absolutely everywhere, laughing and chatting and dressed in silly hats, their screeching youngins trailing behind or held up by the fathers. 

It’s … magical. Different from the magic he was used to, yes, but magical nonetheless.

“Let’s go to my favorite bakery,” Kun says, grinning. His dark hair is stuffed underneath a thick navy hat, his cheeks round and red. He looks adorable, Ten thinks. Like a little Winter nixie. 

“Sure.” Ten nods, and with a gentle squeeze to his hand, Kun leads him into a small alleyway. It’s lined with a few shops, cramped but homey, and the air in here smells divine, sweet and warm and spiced. 

“They make these amazing gingerbread croffles every Christmas, and their peppermint mocha is to  _ die  _ for,” Kun tells him as he pulls Ten into one of the shops. It’s brightly lit just like all the other places they’ve been, though the front table is absolutely bursting with colorful breads and cakes, protected behind a large glass case. 

Ten smiles. He has no idea what a croffle is, but if Kun is this excited about it, then he’s sure it will be delicious. 

“Kun-ge!” The boy behind the front table waves at them, smiling warmly. There’s only one other person in the shop, sat down near the front window and preoccupied with their little communication device, so the boy’s voice carries, perhaps not too concerned with keeping the peace. 

“Hey, Chenle,” Kun greets with a grin of his own. He gestures vaguely with his hand, and Ten realizes he’s pointing at him. “Chenle, this is Ten, my new … friend.” 

Ten nods to Chenle, saying softly, “Hello, Chenle.” The boy has a very cute smile. It’s all teeth and it scrunches his face up in a way that makes it look like he has whiskers, and it widens even further with Kun’s words. 

“ _ Friend _ , huh?” He giggles like it’s funny, and Kun’s cheeks redden, though Ten fails to sense any humor. 

Are they friends? It’s been fifteen suncycles since the incident in the woods when he first met Kun, and ten since Ten was banished from the fae realm, forced to turn to Kun because he had no idea where he could go. Frankly, that is not a lot of suncycles, though perhaps helping someone escape the vestiges of Death only to be cast out from your home for it can pull people closer together in a short amount of time. 

“Yes, Chenle,  _ friend.  _ Now, croffles, please. ” Kun sniffs. Ten’s heart warms at that word. Friend. 

Chenle rolls his eyes, though Ten can tell it’s only in jest. He opens the glass case’s sliding compartment and grabs two pieces of bread with a gloved hand, both drizzled in sticky brown syrup and dusted with fine white sugar. “Peppermint mocha for you, ge?” Chenle asks, putting the treats into a paper bag.

“Yes, please.” Kun glances at Ten, and Ten looks right back. He loves when that happens, when Kun thinks Ten is looking elsewhere so he spares him a little peep. Kun will always train his gaze downwards after, smiling sheepishly like he’s embarrassed. It’s very cute.

This time, though, he does not. Their eyes lock for what feels like a very long time, and for some reason it’s making  _ Ten  _ want to look down. He doesn’t, though, and Kun cracks a smile before saying, “And a cup of hot jasmine for Ten.” 

“Gotcha.” Chenle slips behind some curtains, presumably to make their drinks, and Kun grabs their food. He leads them to the only other empty table. It’s small and the wooden stool is a little harsh on Ten’s butt, but it’s okay. 

“Is it always like this every Winter?” Ten asks as Kun slowly unfolds the napkin in the middle of the table. 

Kun looks up a bit. “Yeah, pretty much. Why, do you not like it?” He takes a croffle out of the bag before placing it on top of the spread napkin, sliding it over to Ten’s side of the table. “Here you go.” 

“Thank you, Kun.” Ten grabs the bread. It’s quite funnily-shaped, flat and oblong and patterned with shallow squares. The syrup is tacky against Ten’s fingers. “I … I love it, actually.” He bites into the croffle, and he hums as his mouth is filled with flaky goodness. It reminds him of Taeyong’s baking, actually. The thought brings with it a little sadness, but no regret. “I can feel your love for each other, palpable and warm in the air. It’s almost like magic. It’s beautiful, Kun, really.” 

Kun smiles for the nth time tonight, and it makes Ten’s heart sing. “I’m glad to hear that. Do you, um, have anything like this? Back home, I mean.” Kun asks this question with a careful voice, like he’s unsure how Ten will react. 

“In the fae realm, yes.” Ten licks a bit of syrup from the corner of his mouth. “We celebrate many occasions with bountiful feasts and music and gift-giving. In fact, the Winter Solstice was only two suncycles ago.” Recollections of past Solstices flash in Ten’s mind, and much like the memory of Taeyong’s sweet treats, they only wash him over in longing. No sorrow. No shame. “But that place is not my home anymore, Kun,” Ten says, looking up from his croffle. “Here is my home. With you.” 

The words ring true, and now Ten knows for certain why he doesn’t mourn the place he once loved. 

Kun is looking at him with such soft eyes, filled to the brim with something warm, something that may become all-powerful if given the time to grow. They have all the time in the world now, Ten realizes. 

Kun opens his mouth, and Ten prepares himself (for what, he’s not really sure), but then Kun’s gaze flickers upwards, and his lips quirk into a small smile. 

He points to the ceiling. “Mistletoe.” 

Ten looks up. A small red berry plant is hanging from the ceiling from a glittery red ribbon, swaying gently in the shop’s artificial breeze. Huh. Is Kun deflecting from his thinly-veiled confession? 

“They say that when two people stand under a mistletoe, they have to kiss,” Kun suddenly says, and …

_ Ah.  _

Ten hides a gleeful grin behind his croffle, though he doesn’t say anything for a few moments, just to watch the slowly-deepening red flush along Kun’s face. Kun seems to take Ten’s silence as bewilderment or rejection, because he starts frantically waving his hands, yelping, “Not that  _ we  _ have to, of course! It’s just … it’s a silly Mundie tradition, I thought you would have found it interesting or funny, I’m not asking you to kiss me or any —” 

Oh, he is  _ so  _ darling when he gets like this. Ten just cannot stop himself when he surges forward, over his croffle, and plants the softest of kisses on Kun’s left cheek. 

It’s a dry kiss as the cold has parched his lips, but it shuts Kun up anyways, and when Ten sits back down, his face is the reddest Ten’s seen it, eyes blown wide.

Ten laughs, endeared to his very core. “I should probably get used to Mundie tradition, hm?” he says, playful, and when Kun snaps out of his trance to nod, lips curling slowly into a bashful beam, Ten laughs again.

He can make a home out of this realm, and out of this Mundie man. 

**Author's Note:**

> [gingerly taps on mic] h-hi 
> 
> this is the first thing i've written in a very, veerryyy long time and even though it's far from perfect, i'm quite proud of it :") hopefully this drabble challenge can help me get back into writing again ^_^ 
> 
> say hi to me on twitter @kuntenyu if u wanna ask questions about this au, or if u just wanna chat!! ik this story is like very vague hendhdhedks maybe i'll expand on kunten's 1st meeting in another work. thank you so much for reading !! kudos and comments are highly appreciated <33 
> 
> p.s. pls don't mind chenle just disappearing after he went into the back lmao let's just say he got distracted by some weibo notifs *sweats*


End file.
